[23 miles off the coast of Gaza, 15:30pm] - Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (see below for a complete list of passengers). The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.

“This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip,” said Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate. “President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We're asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey.”

According to an International Committee of the Red Cross report released yesterday, the Palestinians living in Gaza are “trapped in despair.” Thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed earlier during Israel’s December/January massacre are still without shelter despite pledges of almost $4.5 billion in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building material into the Gaza Strip. The report also notes that hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their patients due to Israel’s disruption of medical supplies.

“The aid we were carrying is a symbol of hope for the people of Gaza, hope that the sea route would open for them, and they would be able to transport their own materials to begin to reconstruct the schools, hospitals and thousands of homes destroyed during the onslaught of "Cast Lead”. Our mission is a gesture to the people of Gaza that we stand by them and that they are not alone" said fellow passenger Mairead Maguire, winner of a Noble Peace Prize for her work in Northern Ireland.

Just before being kidnapped by Israel, Huwaida Arraf, Free Gaza Movement chairperson and delegation co-coordinator on this voyage, stated that:

“No one could possibly believe that our small boat constitutes any sort of threat to Israel. We carry medical and reconstruction supplies, and children’s toys. Our passengers include a Nobel peace prize laureate and a former U.S. congressperson. Our boat was searched and received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before we departed, and at no time did we ever approach Israeli waters.”

Arraf continued,

“Israel’s deliberate and premeditated attack on our unarmed boat is a clear violation of international law and we demand our immediate and unconditional release.”

Huwaida Arraf, USHuwaida is the Chair of the Free Gaza Movement and delegation co-coordinator for this voyage.

Ishmahil Blagrove, UKIshmahil is a Jamaican-born journalist, documentary film maker and founder of the Rice & Peas film production company. His documentaries focus on international struggles for social justice.

Kaltham Ghloom, BahrainKaltham is a community activist.

Derek Graham, IrelandDerek Graham is an electrician, Free Gaza organizer, and first mate aboard the Spirit of Humanity.

Alex Harrison, UKAlex is a solidarity worker from Britain. She is traveling to Gaza to do long-term human rights monitoring.

Denis Healey, UKDenis is Captain of the Spirit of Humanity. This will be his fifth voyage to Gaza.

Fathi Jaouadi, UKFathi is a British journalist, Free Gaza organizer, and delegation co-coordinator for this voyage.

For the past four years, I have observed the military occupation of the high school where I teach science. Currently, Chicago's Senn High School houses Rickover Naval Academy (RNA). I use the term "occupation" because part of our building was taken away despite student, parent, teacher and community opposition to RNA's opening.

Senn students are made to feel like second-class citizens inside their own school, due to inequalities. The facilities and resources are better on the RNA side. RNA students are allowed to walk on the Senn side, while Senn students cannot walk on the RNA side. RNA "disenrolls" students and we accept those students who get kicked out if they live within our attendance boundaries. This practice is against Chicago policy, but goes unchecked. All of these things maintain a two-tiered system within the same school building.

This phenomenon is not restricted to Senn. Chicago has more military academies and more students in JROTC than any other city in the US. As the tentacles of school militarization reach beyond Chicago, the process used in this city seems to serve as a model of expansion. There was a Marine Academy planned for Georgia's Dekalb County, which includes 10 percent of Atlanta. Fortunately, due to protest, the school has been postponed until 2010. Despite it being postponed, it is still useful to analyze the rhetoric used to rationalize the Marine Academy. Many of the lies and excuses used to justify school militarization in Chicago and Georgia may well be used in other cities as militarism grows.

Not for Recruiting?

A favorite lie used to defend the expansion of military academies is that they are not used to recruit for the military.

"This is not a training ground to send kids into the military," Dekalb Schools' Superintendent Crawford Lewis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in March. Those same words could have come straight from Col. Rick Mills, director of military academies and JROTC in Chicago, who explained away recruitment in a similar fashion.

"This is not a recruiting tool, but a way to help students succeed at whatever career they might choose," Mills told the Chicago Tribune.

Yet military academies receive money from the Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD would be derelict in its responsibilities were that money not spent as an investment in future soldiers. Accepting the claim that there is no recruiting in military academies makes about as much sense as allowing gangs to fund and operate within schools, on the assumption that they won't recruit on school grounds.

Moreover, since military academies are staffed with ex-service members (many don't even require valid teaching certificates), students are likely to receive career advice that favors a military path.

There are more blatant examples of recruiting at RNA. The cadets - the label applied to students at military academies - have taken a school-sponsored field trip to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Furthermore, last year the school hosted Adm. Michael Mullen, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mullen told the cadets that the Navy was a "great career choice." RNA has hosted ten admirals in their short four-year history.

In addition to these direct tactics, the academies use more insidious approaches. A military culture permeates these schools. Students dress in uniform, receive demerits, and are introduced to the military hierarchy and way of life. For example, I have witnessed students marching with fake rifles. This cultivation of a militarized mind is the best explanation for why 40 percent of all Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program graduates wind up entering military service. This statistic is especially telling, considering that less than one percent of the population has served in the military at any given moment since 1975.

The Choice Argument

Military academies are promoted as an option within the public school system for parents. We heard it from Arne Duncan (ex-CEO of CPS and current secretary of education) and we hear it from Dale Davis, public information officer for the Dekalb County School System, who calls the military school "an addition" for parents to consider. Compare that with what Colonel Mills said in December 2007 in the Online News Hour: "The purpose of the military academy programs is to offer our cadets and parents an educational choice among many choices in Chicago Public Schools and to provide an educational experience that has a college prep curriculum, combined with a military curriculum."

We must dissect what kind of "choice" parents are given. If one's only choices are a school in desperate need of repair or a shiny new military academy, parents will often "choose" the "better" school.

The unbalanced funding presents an incredibly difficult decision for many parents, as Marivel Igartua, mother of a cadet inside the Naval Academy, told me. She didn't want to have to send her daughter to RNA, but she felt squeezed into the choice because her area school was in such bad shape. The unequal allocation of resources, which favors military academies, can serve as a form of economic coercion upon parents.

If public schools were given the resources they need to improve, then we could offer parents a more real choice.

Military pushers also argue that the academies are a popular option among parents. According to Mills, quoted in In These Times in 2005, "These kinds of programs would not be in schools if there weren't kids who wanted it, parents who supported it and administrators who facilitated it."

Arne Duncan claimed there were waiting lists filled with children hoping to attend a military academy. However, CPS has never released the so-called waiting lists, and concrete numbers tell a different story. RNA's goal for student enrollment for this year was 500-600 students. RNA finished the year with 376 students. Where's the demand?

Military Academies in the Context of Dismantling Public Education

Viewing militarization in the broader scope of "school improvement" can provide a helpful lens. In Chicago, military academies often represented one offshoot of a general plan to break down public education and replace it with charter schools and contract schools, siphoning public money to business people and "nonprofits." However, these "chosen" schools don't perform any better than public schools. A recent Chicago study compared ACT scores between charter schools and neighborhood schools, and no statistically significant difference was found. There was a difference in the number of English language learners and special-needs students accepted. Charters received fewer of both students. We see the same dichotomy with Senn and RNA.

What may be more problematic is that sometimes the charterization movement masks hidden agendas Sometimes the hidden agenda is union busting. Sometimes it's gentrification. Sometimes it is militarization. We have seen all of these hidden agendas in Chicago. We all agree that public schools are in desperate need of renovation and repair. But simply demonizing public schools as failing without giving them the resources to succeed - and replacing them with experimental schools - is unjust.

The push to destroy public schools and replace them with military academies and charter schools was further facilitated under the mayoral control of schools in Chicago. Mayoral control means that a city's once publicly elected school board is replaced by mayoral appointees partial to the agenda set forth by the mayor. In Chicago, it also meant replacing the school superintendent, who was legally mandated to have public education experience, with a CEO, who is only mandated by his scruples. Duncan served as the CEO for several years. He helped administer and finish off the largest militarization of a school system in the US, under the banner of "school improvement."

If we look at the history of Chicago's "school improvement" plan, we can see the hidden agenda pushed by the charter movement. According to Pauline Lipman, writing in Substance News in 2005, it is a plan whose blueprint was ripped from the Commercial Club of Chicago, a conglomerate of Fortune 500 companies in Chicago. Schools are closed and reopened while students are shuffled around to other schools, which are often performing worse than their original school. Little regard is paid to the education of the majority of students, almost all of them poor, black and Latino/a. Simply put, Chicago's plan is not a school improvement plan. It is the dismantling of a public good for the benefit of a chosen few. School militarization was accelerated as this plan was being implemented in Chicago.

The pushing of similar plans can be expected throughout the US now that Duncan is secretary of education. With the stimulus bill's $100 billion in emergency aid for public schools and colleges, Duncan is in an incredible position of power. He could use it to promote renovation and increase resources to existing public schools. Or he could spend it on costly privatization and militarization, squandering our tax money and endangering our children's futures.

--------Brian Roa is a science teacher at Chicago's Senn High School and a member of CORE (Caucus of Rank and File Educators), a caucus in the CTU which works for equitable education for all students and against the charterization schemes in Chicago.

A military coup has taken place in Honduras this morning (Sunday, June 28), led by SOA graduate Romeo Vasquez. In the early hours of the day, members of the Honduran military surrounded the presidential palace and forced the democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, into custody. He was immediately flown to Costa Rica.

A national vote had been scheduled to take place today in Honduras to consult the electorate on a proposal of holding a Constitutional Assembly in November. General Vasquez had refused to comply with this vote and was deposed by the president, only to later be reinstated by the Congress and Supreme Court.

The Honduran state television was taken off the air. The electricity supply to the capital Tegucigalpa, as well telephone and cellphone lines were cut. Government institutions were taken over by the military. While the traditional political parties, Catholic church and military have not issued any statements, the people of Honduras are going into the streets, in spite of the fact that the streets are militarized. From Costa Rica, President Zelaya has called for a non-violent response from the people of Honduras, and for international solidarity for the Honduran democracy.

While the European Union and several Latin American governments just came out in support of President Zelaya and spoke out against the coup, a statement that was just issued by Barack Obama fell short of calling for the reinstatement of Zelaya as the legitimate president.

Call the State Department and the White House

Demand that they call for the immediate reinstatement of Honduran President Zelaya.

June 27, 2009

Active duty soldier and IVAW member, Victor Agosto, has refused to fight in Afghanistan and may face court martial for his actions. Adding your name to our support petition can help his case.Victor returned to Ft. Hood, Texas after his deployment in Iraq and got news that his unit would be sent to Afghanistan. He had already been questioning his service in Iraq and saw parallels with Afghanistan. "Both occupations fuel the insurgencies in those countries. We are creating 'terrorists' and we are killing so many innocent people," Victor concluded. In May, he told his unit command he would not go.Victor has overtly refused to follow any order that has anything to do with his taking an action that would support the occupation of Afghanistan. If he continues to refuse orders, he almost assuredly will face court martial and likely jail time.

"The only way to make them [politicians] responsive to the needs of the people is if soldiers won't fight their wars, and if soldiers won't fight their wars, the wars won't happen. I hope I'm setting an example for other soldiers."

There are many more soldiers and Marines who feel the way Victor does, but face tremendous pressures to remain silent and go along with the status quo. This is why public support for his case is so important right now.

June 25, 2009

Many veterans will face solitary mental battles long after they have finished fighting with comrades in Afghanistan

By Caroline Wyatt, Defence correspondent, BBC News

In the run-up to Armed Forces Day on 27 June, some veterans warn that fierce fighting in Afghanistan - and the legacy of the Iraq conflict - could lead to more personnel needing help for mental trauma.

Former serviceman Andy Lorimer knows exactly how that feels.

"Friends said I wasn't the same. I started drinking, and cut myself off from everyone," he says."I couldn't remember things. It came as a real shock to be diagnosed with a mental health disorder."

Mr Lorimer works as a director of Talking2Minds in Scotland, a charity run by veterans for veterans aimed at treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).For him, being diagnosed with the illness came out of the blue.

He had enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the RAF, also serving with the Parachute Regiment and special forces in almost every conflict of the past 18 years including Northern Ireland, the Balkans and Iraq.

Like many former servicemen, he struggled to find treatment to address years of accumulated trauma from harrowing experiences.

Typically, PTSD can involve flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia and constant alertness for threats which may no longer exist.

One of the main NHS treatments - cognitive behavioural therapy - did little to help Mr Lorimer.

It was only in 2007 that he was introduced to a former Army colleague, Mick Stott, who was also a qualified trainer in neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

Battling demons

"After the first session I slept peacefully for the first time in years without medication," says Mr Lorimer.Described as an "owner's manual for the brain", NLP teaches people to control their thoughts and behaviour.

Talking2Minds uses it to help others who have spent years battling the demons of their past combat experience.

"I believe PTSD within the military is on the rise, but that it can be treated. You can be brought back to a life you can enjoy and not dwell on the past," says Mr Lorimer.He has been lucky to enjoy the strong support of his family but says more government funding is needed.

Another charity has taken a different approach to helping veterans with combat stress.In a tranquil spot in Ayrshire, horticulturalist Anna Baker Cresswell set up Gardening Leave after seeing a friend take his own life after returning from the Falklands.

It offers a walled garden and horticultural therapy to former service personnel.

"What the veterans say they enjoy most about coming here is that they are together," she says."Veterans like being outside and having something semi-structured to do because when they focus on something else which is meaningful, it stops their intrusive thoughts and their flashbacks."

Former soldier Peter Southall suffered for decades.

He served in Northern Ireland during the early 1970s but it was not until he found himself contemplating suicide some 30 years on that he sought support.

Planting seedlings in the walled garden offers the first real peace of mind he has enjoyed for a long time, he says.

His son has just returned from serving in Afghanistan.

'Greater awareness'

However, Mr Southall is optimistic that today's soldiers, sailors and airmen will not have to wait so long for help in dealing with the psychological wounds of war.

"There seems to be a lot more co-operation happening now, and more awareness," he says.L/Cpl Stephen Moger, who served with the TA in Iraq in 2004, is one of the younger veterans with PTSD who are being helped by the charity.

"It really came to light after I had one particularly bad night and I wanted to drive into oncoming cars.

"It was the thought of my mum and dad that stopped me and the very next morning I went to the doctor."

He and the other veterans are referred to Gardening Leave from nearby Hollybush House, a treatment centre run by the veterans' mental health charity Combat Stress.

People have often had their symptoms for very many yearsGary Walker, Combat Stress

Gary Walker is head of clinical services at the charity which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.

He says veterans are now approaching the charity much earlier - around the age of 45, rather than in their 60s - perhaps partly due to better awareness of mental health issues.

"People have often had their symptoms for very many years, sometimes 14 to 20 years," he says.

"During that time, the intensity of their symptoms increases markedly and so it makes it very, very difficult for them.

"Unfortunately, with cutbacks in mental health especially, people are fire-fighting long-term enduring illnesses."

The latest MoD figures show that in the first six months of 2008, 1,636 servicemen and women were diagnosed with a mental disorder by defence medical services.

That amounts to 8.3 per 1,000 - or less than 1% of those coming forward for help in that period while still serving.

Of that number, 66 people were given an initial assessment of PTSD.

The MoD says that incidence of PTSD within the military remains low, although it has started a project with the NHS to introduce community-based mental health pilot schemes for veterans.

Guilt and shame

They aim to provide assessment and treatment within the NHS, helped by military mental health experts and veterans' charities.

The Medical Assessment Programme is available to all veterans deployed on operations since 1982.

It is run by consultant psychiatrist Prof Ian Palmer, who says that guilt, shame and "not wanting to let the team down" prevent people from seeking help.

"Once veterans are in a system, be it NHS or anywhere else, the treatment is the same. The difficulty is getting people to come forward."

So, even when the help is there, many former personnel will be battling the mental wounds of conflict alone long after the fighting is over.

Prof Palmer insists their trauma is treatable and they do not have to suffer for the rest of their lives.

June 24, 2009

U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong ruled that laws passed in the Humboldt County cities of Arcata and Eureka in November were unconstitutional and invalid.

The finding was not unexpected by proponents of the laws, which passed with 73 percent of the vote in Arcata and 57 percent in Eureka. The federal government quickly sued to overturn the laws, which have been stayed ever since.

But Dave Meserve, the former Arcata councilman behind the laws, said he was disappointed that the judge ruled without hearing arguments on the case. Armstrong ruled on filed pleadings after a hearing scheduled this month was canceled.

"She doesn't respond to any of our arguments in any way," he said. "The order reads like a restatement of the government's case."

Department of Justice spokesman Charles Miller said "We are pleased with the court's ruling."Eileen Lainez, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, declined tocomment on the suit but said, "It is important for recruiters to provide information to youth and their parents."

The Arcata and Eureka laws join a long list of failed attempts to restrict military recruiting.Opponents of recruiting have tried to keep recruiters off college campuses nationwide. Berkeley issued and then rescinded a letter calling Marine recruiters "unwelcome intruders."And the San Francisco school board in 2006 killed the local Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, which some members saw as a recruiting tool, launching a three-year battle that ended last month with JROTC back in place.

The Arcata and Eureka laws represented a new tactic that experts said appeared to have been the first of its kind in America: a counter-recruitment law passed not by a handful of elected activists, but by a plurality of voters.

Many voters in Arcata and Eureka who supported the measures saw the laws not as anti-military, but as an expression of a community's right to set its own rules - particularly relating to children.

Opponents said the laws were unpatriotic, pointlessly quixotic, and imposed a government regulation on a domain that would be better handled by parents.

The laws made it illegal to contact anyone under the age of 18 to recruit that person into the military or promote future enlistment. Minors could still initiate contact with recruiters if they chose.

"The judge said that the question of military recruitment is a subject which must be regulated by the federal government and may not be regulated by states and localities," said Stanford Law School Senior Lecturer Allen Weiner, who read the opinion but did not take part in the case.

Under the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution, federal laws trump state laws on issues the federal government is responsible for, like foreign affairs and national defense.The cities tried to head off that finding by arguing that the United States is party to international treaties prohibiting the recruiting of children under 17. The treaties, the cities argue, hold equal standing to the supremacy clause, so recruitment aimed at children under 17 - such as posters or recruiter calls - is unconstitutional.

Armstrong did not address that argument. Brad Yamauchi, a San Francisco attorney who represented Arcata pro bono, said the reason she didn't may have been because the treaty addresses recruitment of children under age 17, but the laws in Arcata and Eureka barred recruiting anybody under 18.

Recruits must be 18 to enlist in the U.S. military, or 17 with parental permission, although contact with recruiters may begin earlier.

If the cities choose to appeal or draft a new law, Yamauchi said, they might focus on the 17-and-under crowd. But they would still need to solve other constitutional concerns raised by Armstrong - a task he said will be difficult at best.

But Yamauchi said an appeal might still be worth pursuing.

"Everything has to be done to put this pressure (on policymakers), and having an appeal could be part of that pressure," he said.

Arcata City Attorney Nancy Diamond said the city has made no decision on whether to pursue an appeal.

But Meserve said that no matter what, the effort was worthwhile.

"Whatever the outcome, I think it's been very positive," he said. "It has opened people's eyes across the country to the fact that recruiters target kids."

June 23, 2009

Citizen Soldier held a press conference June 18, 2009 in Watertown, NY just prior to Specialist Trevor Loope’s appearance before a sanity board at Fort Drum later that morning. Sp/4 Trevor Loope is facing a possible court-martial trial for going AWOL. After returning to base from a combat tour in Afghanistan, he was unable to obtain needed treatment for PTSD with severe depression. He left the base for his home city of Austin, Tx. Eventually he was seen by Dr. David Ogren, a clinical psychologist from Houston who diagnosed Trevor as hsuffering from PTSD and severe depression. At the time of the press conference, it was uncertain whether Dr. Ogren would be allowed to address the sanity board. Tod Ensign, a lawyer and director of Citizen Soldier, spoke and introduced Dr. Ogren and Eric Werthman, a psychiatric social worker in NYC. A reporter from WWNY TV, the Watertown CBS affiliate, posed questions.

The Mohawks are demanding that Canadian Border Guards not be allowed to carry weapons on their land. In response, the Canadians have blockaded the bridge to Mohawk land and the US has supported them by closing their side.

[An irony is that the truck plaza for the proposed new Peace Bridge was going to be on the Canadian side in Fort Erie. Canadians wouldn't allow US border guards to carry weapons on Canadian land or to fingerprint people since that is a violation of their constitution. Now they are planning to tear down an entire historic neighborhood so they can put the truck stop on the Buffalo side, thus allowing US border guards to have their guns. (The West Side neighborhood has some of the highest respiratory illness among the children living there with the current set up. It would only increase with the planned truck plaza. There has been a lot of opposition and it may never happen.) The arming of the Canadian border guards went into effect on June 1, 2009]

The Mohawks have been harassed and abused by the Canadian border guards for years and are concerned about the attempt to arm the guards. Many believe it is to elicit a reaction from the Mohawks so they can move in forcibly and confiscate their valuable land.

Perhaps the Canadians have been studying the tactics used by the Israelis to control and confiscate Palestinian land.

Monday, June 22, 2009

22 Days into June and Still the US is Denying Mohawks Access to their Own Community

Before a June 1st deadline filled with threats of armed border guards and tougher scrutiny for those that dare enter the American dreamland could come to pass, the US and Canadian shut down the Three Nations Bridge, connecting the two through the most unlikely and unwilling partner; the Mohawk Nation.

It is amazing that the blockade of a small Native community by two of the largest countries in the world could continue this long with little to no outrage, media or even comment. No Obama, not even a tap dance around the subject. No Clinton, no Napolitano. The few comments offered by US politicians, like Schumer, Gillibrand and McHugh, suggested this was a quarrel that had to be worked out between Canada and the Mohawks, accepting no responsibility or even acknowledging the actions on the US side of this issue.

The two issues that simply do not square is why the Mohawk opposition to allowing the Canadian Border Service Agency to establish an armed presence in the heart of a Mohawk village should result in the US blocking access to that portion of the community. As mentioned in previous posts; all the 911 hysteria that has allowed unprecedented incursions into civil rights and has literally allowed both the US and Canada to get away with murder (sometimes even against each other), proves once again to be only a tool to be picked up and used when convenient, not necessarily an evenly applied policy or standard.

The US / Canadian border became a spotlight issue after 9/11. Millions spent on high-tech border stations, passport requirements and higher identification standards, travel and tourism studies, trade and commerce studies; all smoke and mirrors.

The US right now is not only forcing a so-called breach in their "border security" at a spot that they have bitched about ever since they scribed a line on a map of our territory, but they are now completely turning a blind eye to it. With the New York State Police denying us access to our own community by bridge, we are forced to once again go back to days of old and use the river for our transportation. This traffic has increased to the point that many passenger and even a vehicle ferry is now in operation granting access to the Cornwall Island from the southern portions of our community. In spite of this "breach" or the hazards of water travel, no one from the US side has even attempted a conversation with the Mohawk people. To be honest, most of us are OK with the bridge being closed, for now. But the first accident on the river or the first attempt by anyone trying to close this access will certainly cause the stakes to be raised.

The Obama administration has prided itself on the diversity of their appointments. So my question is when do these people move beyond gesture made by their appointments and really do something. Larry Echohawk, Jodi Gillette and Kimberly Teehee; the Mohawk lines are now open. It must have been pretty uncomfortable coming to our Western Door in Seneca Territory for NCAI unprepared to address the issues of our Eastern Door. The Seneca People too are waiting to see how you conduct yourselves regarding the assault on their commerce as well.We don't need anymore apologies from US and Canadian officials or agencies. We don't need new policies unless the new policy is removing the old ones. Stop the assault on our sovereignty.

June 22, 2009

When you think of your Senator or Congressman, remember this picture - almost all of them voted again to continue these atrocities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

When you think of our War Resisters, remember that we lock them up for refusing to do this.

If you don't want to see pictures like this, don't let it happen. Help a soldier who chooses to resist. -Russell

ABOVE: A victim of a US bombing in Afghanistan on May 4 under Commander in Chief Barack Obama.

Seeing some of these people online turning their profile pictures green “for Iran” makes me want to create a Facebook and Twitter application that turns profile pictures blood red, in solidarity with all of the Afghans and Iraqis and Pakistanis being killed by US wars today; wars that people in the US failed to stop and whose representatives continue to fund to the tune of $100s of billions.—Jeremy Scahill at Rebel Reports

Trevor Loope might be be facing a court-martial proceeding on July 1. Or maybe the proceeding will be delayed. Or maybe (we hope) the charges against him will be dropped and he will be a favorable, non-punitive administrative separation –in effect acknowledging his PTSD and severe depression, and the failure of the military to provide the treatment that he requested upon his return from his combat tour in Afghanistan.

We need to be prepared to travel to Watertown and pack the observation boxes in the court room if indeed the command does decide to try to make an example of him and proceed with a punitive court-martial. That could be as early as July 1st. Are you ready to drop what you are doing for the day and join us? If so, please use the contact form to let us know that you will be there for Trevor.

The video above was taken outside the PX facility at Ft. Drum on June 18 after Trevor appeared before a sanity board. Trevor Loope is joined by, Dr. Ogren, the psychologist in Houston who diagnosed Trevor while he was AWOL in Texas, and Tod Ensign, a lawyer who directs Citizen soldier. Additional video from the press conference earlier in the day will follow, along with a summary of Trevors case.

Specialist Trevor Loope, 23, of Austin TX, served 15 months in Afghan combat with the 3d Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division. Upon returning to Ft. Drum in 2007 he was unable to obtain adequate treatment for mental health issues. This caused him to leave the base in search of effective treatment.

Dr. David Ogren, a clinical psychologist from Houston, TX with fifteen years experience treating victims of mental trauma, spent hours examining and testing Specialist Trevor Loope. Dr. Ogren’s report concludes that Trevor suffers from a severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and a Major Depression, Severe. He also has a detailed treatment plan which was prepared by his therapist in Austin, TX.

On December 3, 2009, Specialist Trevor Loope addressed Ithaca's Common Council requesting the Common Council's active support upon his return to the base to potentially face criminal charges for being AWOL. As of late December, it looked promising that he would get an administrative discharge. Drum commanders, however, scheduled a sanity board to assess Loope's mental health status on Thursday, June 19th 10:00 am at Ft Drum's Mental Health facility. They also proffered criminal charges against Loope for AWOL with trial by a Special Court Martial set for July 1st, 2009.

Early in June, Dr. Ogren telephoned Ft Drum's mental health chief, Dr.Todd Benham offering to serve as an expert witness before the sanity board.. Ogren’s offer involved no expense to the military, since he is willing to pay his own travel expenses from Houston. On Monday, June 15th, Dr. Benham finally returned Ogren's call, asking him why he had phoned. When Ogren told him of his desire to testify at Loope's hearing, Benham remarked that that this was ridiculous and that since it was a closed hearing, he didn't think that Ogren would be allowed to testify. Dr. Ogren arrived at the base and waited in the lobby of the health center. He was invited to respond for ten minutes regarding any corrections or additions to the report he had written, a copy of which the board had already received. He was in conference much longer than ten minutes.

The video was taken outside the PX facility at Ft. Drum after the sanity board. Trevor Loope, Dr. Ogren, and Tod Ensign, a lawyer who directs Citizen soldier are interviewed. Citizen Soldier, a GI/veterans rights advocacy organization based in NYC, is supporting Trevor in his struggle to receive an administrative discharge from Ft. Drum. Tod Ensign, a lawyer and Director of Citizen Soldier and co-ordinator of the Different Drummer Cafe in Watertown, accompanied Trevor to Ithaca. He urged Council to extend broad support to war resisters like Trevor consistent with its “Community of Sanctuary” resolution, which was passed by Council on October 1, 2008.

June 20, 2009

For years now, I have been writing about the duplicity of the Democrats and the shocking similarity between the two parties when it comes to the use of state-sanctioned terrorism against innocent populations.

This past week, after the betrayal of every American who elected Democrats to end the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, I am wondering if there is anyone still in this nation who thinks that there’s any significant difference between the war ideologies of Democrats and Republicans.

I know many faux-gressive entities on the “left” whose silence on this matter is so loud it’s hurting my eardrums. Where was MoveOn.org over these past few weeks when the Dems were bludgeoning their caucus to vote “Aye” to extend the war crimes in the Middle East? Where were Markos Moulitsas (Daily Kos) and his bloggers that day? The day the funding bill passed, I wandered over to The Daily Kos and saw that it was all a-twitter about Senator Ensign (R) having an extra-marital affair. Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Harry Reid may, or may not, be loyal spouses, but their calumny will kill, maim, torture or displace thousands of people over the next 4-8 years. I am not so interested in what happens in bedrooms as what happens in Democratic war zones.

Faux-gressives MoveOn.org and The Daily Kos supported me, and my work, as long as it solely focused on the Bush regime and the Republicans. However, when I had a late in life epiphany and figured out that the Democrats were abusing the energy of the anti-war movement to regain power, and I started to speak out against the entire War Party, not just one-half of it, I was kicked off blogging for The Daily Kos and ostracized by the fully co-opted MoveOn.org. Nathan Diebenow of the Lonestar Iconoclast then accused me of “alienating” my friends, to add insult to injury.

I think that I have unfortunately been vindicated by almost every single action that the Democratic Party has taken since 2006 when impeachment was taken “off the table,” but “blank-check” war funding was served up to the Military Industrial Complex on a bloody platter dripping with the flesh and blood of real human beings.

Our politicians have no integrity partly because the organizations in the movements that have the largest emailing lists have no integrity. Wars that were wrong under Bush become acceptable under Obama and the stain of torture fades into the woodwork or is hidden from sight like a demented relation because a Senator has an affair. As I understand it, MoveOn.org was founded to oppose the impeachment of Bill Clinton for the same thing Ensign did…now the gatekeepers of the War Party are going to crucify Ensign to distract their subscribers from real issues?

MoveOn.org sent this out in April 2008 in a fundraising email to its 5 million person list: No matter what happens in Iraq, the Bush Administration and John McCain always have the same answer: 6 more months. They're at it again this week, asking for six more months. But six months won't change anything—except the body count and the price tag.

They were not talking about the Democratic war funding this week. Apparently it’s fine to fund wars if we have a Democratic Despotism, but dangerous for our troops if we have a Republican Regime.

Hey MoveOn.org: ComeBack.org. Come back from the dark side of partisan politics. You look like Move America Forward, now:( a reich-wing organization that irrationally and blindly supports Republicans and unquestioningly supported BushCo). CODEPINK supported Barack Obama, but at least CODEPINK is over in Gaza trying to call attention to that crime, while MoveOn.org ignores the situation and most of the bloggers at The Daily Kos just like to sit behind their computer screens and snarkily criticize anyone who is actually on the streets doing the work.

What Pelosi and her Wrecking Crew did last week was disgraceful, but it’s shameful that people who opposed the exact same policies under BushCo support the same crimes of ObamaCo.

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Done with the Democrats? Let's let them hear us! Please check out this group. Don't just join, we are not looking to build another Keyboard Commando Facebook Group. We want The Democrats to hear our cries for peace in the voter registration numbers. I don't care what party you affiliate with, I registered in Arizona as "No party affiliation"...

After Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) guards abandoned their posts May 31, Mohawks pulled down the American and Canadian flags, leaving only Akwesasne's raised. The symbolic warrior flag was also hung over a CBSA sign. Photo by Shannon Burns.

For nine days the border crossing that spans the St. Lawrence River between Cornwall and Massena, NY has been inoperable. On the north side, Canadian authorities have blockaded the Seaway Bridge, while their US equivalents do the same on the south shore of the river. On the island in the middle stands a community in protest.

The community of Awkesasne, part of the Kahniakehaka (Mohawk) Nation, has unified in resistance to the Canadian government’s plan to arm its border guards with 9mm pistols. The guns were set to appear June 1, but Canadian Border Services Agency guards walked off their posts at midnight May 30 in response to a non-violent protest by members of the Akwesasne community. Since then the bridges have been sealed and the feds have refused to speak with community representatives.

Only Akwesasne community members are being permitted to cross the north-side blockade, while U.S. police maintain a total blockade from the south. After being denied entrance to the community by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Cornwall Police, the following interview with Sakoietah, a representative of Akwesasne’s Men’s Traditional Council, was conducted by telephone.

Jesse Freeston: What is the greatest misconception about the current dispute that is being put forward in the media?

Sakoietah: I guess the biggest misconception has been about the blocking of the bridges. A lot of the coverage leads you to believe that we, meaning the people, were blocking the roads, and that wasn’t the truth. And it still isn’t the truth. None of us are stopping anybody from travelling, north or south.

JF: For many this dispute will be difficult to understand, because most people do not have an international border running through their community. How did a border end up in the middle of your community?

S: You have to look at before this actual border came into our territory. It goes back to when the U.S. and Britain signed the Jay Treaty. Article 3 of the Jay Treaty said that we would be allowed to travel back and forth. And our people perceived that border line as being 10 feet above our heads, it didn’t matter to our people that it was there, this was a line dispute between Britain and the U.S., and this is how they settled that dispute. Article 3 allows for us to pass through our own country, unhindered. This goes way back before the construction of the border. The physical building and officers came into effect in the early 1950s. That’s the reason our people fight, because we don’t actually believe that there is a border here. This physical thing that sits here is not for us, it’s for the Canadian public and the U.S. public.

JF: How did the community arrive at the decision to oppose the arming of the guards?

S: The movement here is a people’s movement; it doesn’t follow any kind of council. I sit on the Men’s Council, but we’re not the leadership. This is why the people are so resolved. They’re not going to budge on this issue. Continually, the people have told Canada and the CBSA that the guns will not be allowed within our territory. Our situation is unique, the guard post sits in our territory, in a residential area, and there have been a lot of problems because of that. There are a lot of cases of abuse that are in court right now, and a lot of the people felt that if the arming of the border guards were to happen, it would create the potential for something drastic to happen.

JF: What is your relationship like with the local Canadian settler population? What has been their response to the dispute?

S: We have a good relationship with part of the population and a bad one with another part of the population. A lot of people feel that the law should be applied to everybody regardless of who you are. But the fact is that we are a nation, and we have our own laws. If we were to apply it to them, would they be happy with that?

The Mohawk nation, and in fact the whole Haudenosaunee, or Six Nations Confederacy, signed a treaty known as the Two Row Wampum, and we apply that with any foreign nation or country that we come into contact with. The Two Row Wampum simply explains that we are two rows that travel down the same path together, their ship and our canoe. We travel side by side in this life. The ship has its own laws and customs and our canoe has its own laws and customs. Neither one is to set foot in the other in order to try and steer it.

JF: What has been the response from other original people communities?

S: We have received a lot of support from all over, not only other Mohawk communities but from all over the country. I believe everybody is becoming aware about what is happening here. Just the other night here with the people, a woman from British Columbia said that the people of her nation are aware and they’re burning a fire in support of us. So I think that the news is getting out all over even though the media is blacking out our voice and trying to present what the government of Canada wants to say.

JF: Speaking of the media, I want to give you an opportunity to respond to a couple of the arguments we are seeing in the reporting; the first being that ‘you don’t have anything to worry about with armed guards unless you are doing something wrong.’S: The fact is that there is a record of mistreatment of our people over the years. And the issue didn’t just arrive. Forty years ago, they blocked the bridge in the same location. In 40 years nothing has changed, the abuse has happened over and over. It seems to happen more and more often. CBSA doesn’t seem to understand, and Canadians don’t seem to understand who we are and what we are. We are not lawless people here. We are in fact the most law-abiding people. But we abide by our laws. To push a foreign entity on us, to push a foreign law on us and continually abuse our people. To put our young people in this so-called justice system, for committing what they call a crime. This is important to understand for those who say that if we weren’t committing crimes we would have nothing to worry about. The physical abuse is happening; and could get worse with weapons.

JF: Could you give us an example of the abuse?

S: A grandma from our sister community Kahnawake was crossing, and because of a so-called lack of cooperation she was physically abused. And that is being looked at by the Human Rights Tribunal right now. My own son was involved in an incident where he was abused, charged and eventually acquitted. There are a lot of different incidents, piles and piles of reports that have been given to Mohawk Council and to the Traditional Men’s Council, detailing the abuse that is happening here.

JF: Another argument we see in the papers is that ‘the U.S. guards have been armed for years and there has never been a problem.’

S: That is true. This issue is bigger than the gun issue. The issue is that these buildings sit within our territory. And laws imposed on us in any way, whether it’s guns or Canadian law, must be questioned. Some of our people travel this so-called border seven to 10 times per day. Our families are here, our jobs are here. Yes, the U.S. customs has guns, but they never asked us whether or not they could have guns. The U.S. is spending millions of dollars right now to build a big building across the way. For what? 70 percent of the traffic at this border is our people. Are those holding cells that they’re building for us? The issue over there hasn’t been addressed as of yet, but it will be.

JF: Clearly this issue goes quite a bit deeper than arming the border guards. Have you proposed a long-term solution to the problems created by the border?

S: That would have to be a decision by the people. Right now we are all resolved to saying there will be no weapons here. The ball is in the court of Canada and Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan. Van Loan says that border guards will not return here unless they’re armed, and the Mohawk community should realize that they have no say in this because it’s a Canadian law that has been enacted. The people will not allow guns here, so if it’s the case that border guards won’t be here, then they won’t be here. I mean, in the last week it’s been very nice here without the border guards, no problems. The only problems have been the police blockades on the Canadian and U.S. sides.

JF: What can people do to support your community in this dispute?

S: The main thing is to start asking the questions that we are talking about. Talk to your MPs and elected leadership and ask them these questions. Why isn’t the truth getting out? Why doesn’t the government come to Akwesasne and speak with the people? We need that kind of support. Hopefully there will be a peaceful resolution to this, but the Mohawk people are resolved to the fact that they’re going to stand as long as it takes. We hope that the public can bear with us, as I said we’re not the ones who blocked access to anywhere, and we didn’t overtake a building and throw people out. They simply left their post. And people want to help us out? Start getting out the truth, talk to the people you put in office, and start listening to what Mohawk people are saying.

Jesse Freeston is an independent journalist, currently working with The Real News Network.Reprinted by Indian Country Today with permission from www.rabble.ca

I have been trying to find out about what is going on at the border on the Akwesasne land. In addition to all the publications I have started reading, this 1969 film helps with some of the background.

You Are on Indian Land was one of the first films in Canada to give voice to the concerns of Indigenous People.

Produced in 1969, the film documents a protest that was led by Mohawks from the Haudenosaunee community of Akwesasne on December 20, 1968.

At the time, community members were being forced to pay duty on purchases they made in the United States, despite the fact that the Jay Treaty of 1794, also known as the “Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation”, affirmed that they were not required to do so.The issue surrounding the Treaty has yet to be resolved, as a protest earlier this month reminds us.

The recent protestwas quite different from the one that took place 40 years ago. In ‘68 members from the community blocked off the bridge linking Canada to the United states, which literally cuts through Akwesasne. Confrontation ensued.

“While the news media focused on altercations with the police”, says Albert Ohayonas on the NFB website, filmmaker Mort Ransen took a decidedly different approach. “Ransen showed what led to these altercations and let the Mohawks of the Reserve speak for themselves and tell their own story.”

The Haudenosaunee and our allies are the custodians of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River watershed which we never surrendered. We are the “keepers of the Eastern Door” of Great Turtle Island. According to the Jay Treaty 1794 the US-Canada border is meant for the visitors, not for any Indigenous.

The colonists can put whatever restrictions they can get away with on their own people. They can’t interfere with the inherent right of the Ongwehonwe to traverse our land free from harassment by the occupation forces. We will decide what kind of identification we will use to traverse our territory.

The Canada and US border services agencies shut down their imaginary line on May 31 2009. Now they want to combine their border patrol on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River.

Why did Canada want to put in this gun policy at Akwesasne knowing we would object? Border agents were encouraged to create a confrontation. We did not react and made no justification for the guns.

The US and Canada know we are sovereign. It’s a nation-to-nation issue. Legally they have to go through the Governor General or US President to speak to us.

It looks like Canada wanted to open the door for the US military to legally enter Canada.

Canada’s Minister of Public Safety, Peter Van Loan, announced on June 18th that the US is going to fly unmanned predator drones over Akwesasne from Fort Drum near Watertown New York. These can accurately fire missiles at specific houses, buildings and even people, just like in Afghanistan and Pakistan. They can take pictures and listen to conversations 30 miles into Canada.

The fake situation in Akwesasne is meant to justify this surveillance across the continent to spy on Canadians. Since we have been illegally declared as enemy combatants, they can take away our civil and human rights and fire any kind of missiles at us. They are doing this in Pakistan, violating their sovereignty.

Conservative government’s reaction to our position has been violent. Tyendinaga Mohawks were attacked by what looked like military commandos.Why? A militia is now being set up in Caledonia to go after the Six Nations people. Presently they are unarmed and not in uniform.

Ron Moran, president of the Customs and Immigration Union, said the majority of the guards have been advised not to return to work as long as the border crossing stays on Kawenoke, Cornwall Island. Not having guns could have adverse health effects. We are being used in a phony labor management dispute. It looks like the border guards are going to be removed and replaced by the military.

Canada and Big Tobacco deliberately created the downward spiral of our community trying to bring us under trusteeship. We have been harassed, criminalized and can’t get jobs. We have been put in a helpless position and in personal debts of millions of dollars in bogus fines for as much as $50 million for conducting trade and commerce to feed our families. Big Tobacco of the UK does not want competitors. They took our ceremonial tobacco and turned it into a multi billion dollar business.

Randy Hillier, Member of the Ontario Government, said on June 18, 2009, “The Mohawks only arrived in Canada after the American War of Independence and were granted reserves”. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Ontario, Toronto, Canada, Hochelaga and Donnacona are all Iroquois place names. He stated further that Prime Minister Stephen Harper can arm border guards if he wants to. He’s insinuating that we have no rights. He’s using anger at us to stir up votes to become the Ontario Conservative Party leader.

Recent Federal Court of Canada orders bear out the plot. Two Mohawk women were brutally assaulted on June 14, 2008 at the Akwesasne border. They could not bring charges against the border guards unless they paid court costs. Prothonotary Mireille Tabib made an order on October 23, 2008 that Mohawks residing in Akwesasne and Kahnawake are not residents of Canada. Yet someone coming from South Africa, if assaulted, can lay criminal charges for free! The Canadian judicial system has made us persona non grata with no rights to be protected by their system like everybody else in the world. This violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 1.

Crown agencies such as the RCMP, OPP, CBSA and the Attorney General of Canada have refused to investigate this crime. Subsequent orders supporting Tabib are: Judge Francois Lemieux on January 29, 2009; and Claude Morissette on March 16, 2009. [613-952-4238].

Is the incident at the border a pretext to show how the Canadian and US military and police are going to treat people? The siege and surveillance look like growing martial law. Laws have been passed to protect the military and police from anyone defending themselves from them. Cops can now sue their victims. The multinational corporations used this same tactic to shut down the environmentalists.

Europe and the US are fighting over Canada’s resources. The Europeans have the money, but not the soldiers. They control the banks, car companies, mines, etc. The US has the bombs, soldiers, planes and war machinery. The US economy is now deflated and headed toward bankruptcy. Monied people bought up everything at low prices, like companies, houses, infrastructure, factories, and roads. The US is in hawk to the banksters, becoming a vassal state to Europe. Economically desperate US manpower can be used as mercenaries by the banksters for global conquest.

This scheme was concocted a long time ago and being played out to bankrupt and create 350 million desperate poor US and Canadian people. Are the US and Canada trying to provoke and trap us Mohawks into defending ourselves just like the Palestinians so they can come in and do away with us first and then the rest later?

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